General Conference

Me eating my 1000th dumpling in Taiwan!!!!!! 

 Our favorite friends at our favorite restaurant! 

MIRACLE of finding Christine! 

Lunch with President and his wife

Sister Peterson taking pictures of us contacting while President watches us 

Pday! 

Pday! 

Exchanges with Sister MacCabe 

Hello Everyone! 

This Monday we went to a all-you-can-eat Hot Pot for Elder Raymond's birthday! Super fun and super yummy! Nothing better than being with fun missionary friends and eating some amazing hot pot 😊 Then we decided to go to the beach (becuase one of the Sisters has never been her whole time in Taiwan!) so we played frisbee there and took some awesome pictures. It was the last time seeing one of my missionary friends so we all said goodbye and he gave us some departing words of wisdom. So bitter sweet!! Then we ran into a misisonary who went home a little bit ago and came back to travel with his parents. Such a fun time! 

Then we had the chance to go on exchanges in Taidong!!! So so so fun. I was with Sister MacCabe and she is fire! We are basically the same person so we got along really well and saw some awesome miracles. Taidong is such a beautiful place and the people are so incredible. I've heard about it all my mission from past companions (you know who you are) and I've been so grateful for small chances to serve with these amazing people! 

Thursday was full of miracles! In the morning, we met with Maggie! She is incredible. She is the one who we met last transfer after being prompted to sit outside when we didn't have any English Class students. She is progressing so well! We wanted her to meet more church members so we invited a sister who lives really close to her. They hit it off really well! She prepared some cakes and drinks for us and was just so excited to share all of her spiritual experiences. She is incredible and I know I was sent to this area to find her. 

Last week, we talked to this sweet mom after playing frisbee and she said we could come visit her at her house! We were so so excited. About a week later, we confirmed her address and realized that it was VERY far away. Almost the farthest part of our area and our area is huge! We tried to get a memeber to drive us but couldn't find, so we started biking! About an hour later, we got to the place that Google Maps took us too and it was pretty sketchy. We heard monkeys in the trees and saw some pretty scary looking dogs. Haha So we called her and we were for sure not in the right place! After a small little adventure, we found the place and she let us in! She has two little boys so we met with her, her husband, and the little kids. Such a happy moment. We shared about the Restoration and she loved it. We explained about the Priesthood Authority and she committed to be baptized ! We were literally blown away. On the 13+ mile bike ride home, we were just full of happiness! God knew exactly where she would be and helped us know exactly what to say. LOVE THEM. 

Then, Friday was also full of miracles. Started the day with an interview with President and that always pumps me up. Then we went to McDonald's for a lesson and she didn't show up 😭 So we started our studies and this cute Phillopino mom came over with her baby and started talking to us. We find out she is already Christian and she invites us to come sit by her. 

BUT WAIT it gets better, she lets us share the first lesson with her and she loves it! She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Sister Meeks, I hear your words but its your eyes that are making me want to learn more." I was taken aback and felt the Spirit so strong. So I felt I should invite her to baptism right there and she accepted. Literally incredible. 

I also got a chance to watch Conference this weekend! (We wait a week becuase we have to wait for it to be translated into Chinese) I learned so much but the thing that struct me most was how President Nelson spoke about us correcting the way we refer to our church. He spoke about how Jesus Christ is the center of our church and he is the one who established our church. He is our Savior and Reedemer. Becuase of that, we cannot take His Name out of church! It is the most important part! 

Our Prophet, Russel M. Nelson, said...

"I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen. We will have the knowledge and power of God to help us take the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord." 

Pretty powerful promise right? I know as we use the correct name of the church, we will have more blessings than we can ever imagine ! So let's take this challenge together! We got this! 

Love you all! Hope you have an amazing week! 
Sis. Meeks 

Video calling the Sisters! 

Continuing my brother's work

Exchanges with Chen JM! 

Exchanges with Chen JM! 

Yummy dinner 

Running into Doris ! A friend from back in Banqiao ! 

Video calling our favorite taidong sisters! 

My attempt at a meditation bridge picture! 

Hiking with the crew 

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ 

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ English class! T

Exchanges with Sister ZENTZ 

Teaching about the Iron Rod through a game 

各位弟兄姊妹們大家早安! 

First off, shout out to my little bro Jacob who landed in South Korea this week! He is gonna be an incredible misisonary and I'm excited to serve at the same time! Love ya bro! 

This week was so awesome !! We went on a beautiful hike on Pday (only had minimal injuries and lots of sunburns) where we saw a beautiful waterfall! It was beautiful weather and such a fun time. 😊 

Then on Tuesday, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Zentz! We grew up together so it was fun to see how much we have changed. We laughed the entire time and found some really cool people! We visited one of their Recent Converts Zhang Jiemei and it was so awesome. When we talked about prophets and General Conference, she got so excited and loved it. She has such a strong testimony of the Preisthood and is so excited to hear the prophet speak. Love her! ❤️ 

On Thursday, I had the chance to go on another exchange with Chen Jiemei! She just started her mission a few weeks ago and is already FIRE! She is an amazing teacher and I learned a lot from her. She is also a expert pianist and singer so she gave me lots of tips. We visited our friend Maggie and the lesson was amazing. She was holding the Book of the Mormon and had a moment where she felt the power of this precious book. She bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and committed to read it everyday!! Wooooooo! She is doing amazing and can't wait to see her progress more. 

Then on Friday we had the BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER! We went to a super far part of our area so we had to take the train. We met with these super cool college girls and then were talking about the lesson, when we realized we didn't know when the train back was so we looked it up...and it ended up being in like 6 minutes. So we looked at each other and ran (like full on sprint) to the station, bought the ticket, and jumped on the train that had just pulled in! We looked at each other in releif, and as I was about to sit down...I realized this train was going the wrong direction!! So as the doors were closing, we jumped out as fast as we could! We didn't know what to do so we went back to the ticket office and found out the next train wasn't for another two hours! So we decided to eat dinner and do our language study. We went to a drink shop after dinner and started talking to the worker after ordering our drink. After a minute or two of talking, he's like "I've actually talked to missionaries before and it's really cool because the Elder also had the last name of Mao!" I then asked how long it was ago and he said he couldn't remember exactly, but about 4 or 5 years ago. 

This is where it gets cool! My brother Andrew served in this mission about that time so I pulled out his picture (in my mind thinking there is no way it could be him) and he immediately said, "that's him!" WHAT???? I was super shocked. Of all the people in Taiwan and all the places I could be, I met someone who remembered my brother from a long long time ago. 

This was such a special experience! It goes to show that God does lead his work and that no effort is ever wasted! My brother quickly talked to this person, and then years later he still has interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. It really built my testimony this week that God has the perfect plan, and if we trust him and be worthy, he wil guide us where we need to go. LOVE YOU ANDREW! So happy I can continue the work you started. 

That's about it for this week! Love you all and love to see pictures and hear from you!  Hope you're all doing incredible! 

Sis. Meeks 

Miracles in the Most Interesting Places

My amazing Trainer and her fam ! LOVE you ❤️❤️

Li Jiemei! 

Buddah Fruit

My RC Chen Pei Ru coming to visit!! 

My RC Chen Pei Ru coming to visit!! 

My amazing Trainer and her fam ! LOVE you ❤️❤️

Sister Bennett with Elder Swesen photo bombing! 

 Li Jiemei again! 

Sister Zentz! We grew up together and now we live in the same apartment! 

District dinner from last transfer! 

Gave this awesome kid a Book of Mormon at the train station! 

Hello Everyone! 

This week started off with an awesome Pday where I got to say goodbye to my trainer, Sister Nielsen. Her and her parents came all the way to Hualian to eat with me and I was just so happy! We have so many memories and it was really awesome to meet her parents! So bitter sweet but I'm just grateful we had so much time together in Taiwan 😊🚜❤️

Then Monday night was one of the craziest on my mission! We had set up to meet with a member and had asked for the address so we thought we were ready go! ...we definitely were not ready! We couldn't find the place, no matter how hard we tried! (It also didn't help that it was dark and raining! Haha) We called the member multiple times but we still couldn't find it. We pulled over and asked this cute mom for help and she offered to let us follow her on her motorcycle! She took us to a place, and it still wasn't the right one. We got her phone number, she went on her way, and we kept looking! We knocked on a door to ask for help, but no one was home! We ran into some young adults from the Philippines and they didn't know where to go. Then, a huge miracle happened! We were still standing outside the door we knocked on because we didn't know what to do! We had prayed for direction but didn't get any promting to leave! But the family who lived at the house came home and we started talking to them! Turns out, they needed what we had to say and we had a very spiritual experience with them. They are very prepared and invited us back! 

This night was just another testimony to me that God really does lead this work. It was a very frustrating night, but looking back on it, we saw so many miracles. I know we were meant to meet those people and we have already seem them start to progress, all because we got lost. Those type of things wouldn't happen without God's guidance so I really know he leads this work! 

Another awesome miracle happened at English class! We were disappointed when we didn't have any students at the start of class, but then a mom and her daughter walked in! They were so awesome and we could focus the entire English class on them! They loved it and loved our spiritual share about the Book of Mormon. We found out the mom was searching for the true church, but hadn't found it yet. We set up to meet with her again on Friday, and after hearing about the Restoration, she agreed to be baptized! Such a big miracle and it made us so so happy 😊 

Other fun things that happened! 
1. My recent converts Pei Ru came to visit! Love her so much and its been fun to see her improve. 
2. Got a call from someone random who wanted to hear about the Gospel. Ended up teaching the whole family ! 
3. Had a recent convert fireside at our chapel. It was really cool to hear everyone share their testimonies. 
4. Started talking to a guy in this huge car while he was stopped at a stoplight and got him to set up so we could visit him ! It was funny watching people stare as this huge car pulls over to talk to this white girl! Haha 
5. We had a RC fireside and our friend Jia Zhen came! I sang "Where can I turn for peace" and she said it really touched her soul. Seriously love her so much. 

Love you all so much!

Sis. Meeks 

Transfers!

Pday pictures!!! 

Kao Rou! (BBQ)

Learning how to make food with Duan JM! 

Lesson with Li JM and the new Elders in this area !

New comp! 

Line dancing at our ward activity! 

Fun activity on Saturday!

 Cute friend Lin JM! She brought us a ton of gifts the first time we met with her! So sweet!

Hello Everyone! 

This week has been awesome! It was the week of transfers so a lot of things changed! 

But first off, we had an awesome Pday last wee where we went to Taroko National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL. Seriously so beautiful. We went with the sisters who live with us and their friend who got baptized a few weeks ago. Her name is Toast and she is the sweetest! It's been so awesome to see her progress and improve in so many ways! The Gospel has changed her life and it was cool to spend the day with her and hear all about her cool experiences. 

Since it was transfer week and we were pretty sure my companion was leaving, a lot of people wanted to take us out to lunch or dinner. They are all so so sweet and I have loved serving in this ward. Then...transfers came!!! We found out my companion Xie JM was leaving and I'll be staying with Sister Caten! She was actually with me for a few weeks in the MTC and I'm excited for our transfer together. 

We also found out we are switching wards! We moved to one of the most rural places in the mission! So beautiful! The air is so fresh and the people are so kind! I'm so excited for my time in this area!! 

Well, I don't have much time today because my amazing trainer, Sister Nielsen, and her mom and dad are coming to eat lunch with us today! I'm sad she is going home but so grateful we have had so much time together in Taiwan ❤️ 

Love you all and have an amazing week! 
Sister Meeks  

Pday pictures!!! 

Typhoons and Qingkes!

Qingke with Duan JM at her store

Danny got us ice cream! 

大家早安 ! 

To explain the subject line, we had a typhoon this week and it was crazy! It wasn't as bad as we originally thought it was gonna be...but still pretty crazy! The wind was strong and we got soaking wet! We hadn't heard anything about permission to go home yet so we stayed out, but when we saw a construction cone fly through the air...we decided to stay inside the church ! Haha crazy times in Taiwan! 

The other part of the subject line is qingke! Which means someone taking you out to dinner or making dinner for you. Since transfers are this week, all the members have been taking us out to dinner and we have been stuffed! So kind and so generous! 

This week started off with the best Pday ever! My recent convets Xie Jiemei and Austin came all the way from Banqiao to come see me! I love them so much and have been looking forward to this day for almost a month now. They got up early and took a three hour train ride here, and later in the afternoon took it back. We had such a fun time all day! We went to the beach (sadly it was raining) then went to this cool historical building in Hualian! We then had some amazing curry, and went to this cool art museum where we got to make our own wallets. Such a fun day. 

As I was with them, I couldn't stop smiling! I just love them so much. I know they are one of the very big reasons I was sent to Taiwan, and specifically Banqiao. They have already gone to the Temple and have progressed so much! I met them just a little more than two months ago. It shows that God knew they were prepared and sent us misisonaries to find them and help them get baptized. These stories are the reason I am on a mission! They are now going to be together forever and their lives will never be the same. The Gospel is true ❤️❤️

Another miracle this week was with our investigator Zhang DX. He has a hard work situation so he isn't able to come to church right now but he already knows when he will be able to and we set a baptismal date for that time. He loves the Gospel and recently has changed so much. Over the last 5 weeks, his countenance has changed. As he has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon each day, he said he has seen his life change! So awesome. 
We met with him on Thursday and got the feeling we should share the story of the Restoration with him again. The Spirit was so strong throughout the lesson and when I finished saying the first vision, the room felt so peaceful. He had a special facial expression so we asked him what he was thinking. He said "I'm not thinking, but I'm feeling a lot." He said he hadn't had a feeling like this before but he really really liked it. I got very emotional as I explained that this was the Spirit testifying to him. He said he was going to write down this experience after the lesson so he wouldn't forget it. 

I've been thinking a lot about this experience and how powerful it was. As misisonaries, we often share Moroni 10:5 which says, 

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I've heard this scripture so many times but in the lesson with Zhang DX, I saw this promise be fulfilled right in front of my eyes. The Holy Ghost testified to him that what we were sharing was true. I know that God loves and he will always keep his promises. If we seek the truth and ask him with a "sincere heart and real intent" he will give us an answer. I know this is true! 

Anyway, love you all! Have an incredible week! 
Sister Meeks 

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Zone Conference! We had at an amazing hamburger place for lunch in Taidong! 

Exchanges in Taidong! First time I have been outnumbered by Taiwanese missionaries on my mission haha

Trying to get my package and other stuff home! #bikinglife

Cute young women we are helping to learn English as she prepares for a mission! 

Chen JM set a baptismal date! Yaaayyyyyy! Sadly she doesn't live in our area but we are excited for the Elders to keep teaching her.  

Hey Everyone! 

This week started out with Zone Conference in Taidong! Ever since being companions with Sister Hurst and hearing so much about how Taidong is amazing, I've always wanted to go there! It for sure didn't disappoint! It is beautiful and incredible. It's the most south part of our mission and it's completely different from the city! I feel so lucky that I have been able to see so many different places on this beautiful island!

But Zone Conference was incredible! President Peterson talked a lot about the Gathering of Isreal and we all felt the Spirit very strong. I feel so blessed to have a role in this great gathering. We also talked a lot about Family History and how we can use it more in our misisonary work. Long story short, we all felt very inspired and ready to use the new tools we have been given to help more people come unto Christ!

After Zone Conference, we stayed in Taidong and I was able to go on exchanges with Chen JM! SHE IS AN INCREDIBLE MISSIONARY. I learned so much from her. She has such a strong desire to do the work and share the Gospel with everyone she sees. She always has a smile on her face and people are drawn to her because she is always so happy. Such an awesome exchange.

This week we set a goal as a Zone for each companionship to get at least one Set Up a day. (Meaning you meet someone, talk to them about the Gospel, and set a return appointment) We have already seen so many miracles. Our biggest one this week was finding Zheng JM! We were biking to do language study and we see a lady on the side of the road walking and she looked super super sad. So I decide to turn my bike around and talk to her. At first she flat out said "buyong" which basically means she has no interest. This is usually our que to leave but for some reason we had the feeling to not give up and keep talking with her.

We found out that reason about two minutes later when we started asking more questions about her life and found out she has been having a lot of challenges this past little bit. She got so emotional and we ended up comforting her a lot. We shared a scripture with her and long story short, became good friends and she is really interested in learning more! Such a miracle!

We have had so many small miracles like this and it really helps me see God's hand in my missionary work. I really know that God leads us to exactly where we need to be. But this doesn't just apply to missionary work! This applies to everyone! I've been reflecting on a lot of things that happened pre-mission and I'm realizing there were even more miracles than I thought! God loves us SO MUCH! His greatest joy is seeing us happy, so of course he is going to bless us, we just need to do our own part as well 😊😊

I love being a missionary! I know this church is true! No matter what doubts or challenges we have, we can always go back to the basics of this Gospel to obtain comfort and strength. God is our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is our Savior. Through Christ's Atonement, we can have happiness and eternal joy.

Love you all and have an incredible week!
Sister Meeks